


Leaves

by Katiebug445



Category: Free!
Genre: Back at it again for day two!, Fictober, Fluff, M/M, pre-rintori
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-02
Updated: 2018-10-02
Packaged: 2019-07-24 00:47:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16170152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katiebug445/pseuds/Katiebug445
Summary: Aiichiro finds a leaf. His leaf gets destroyed. Rin comes to the rescue.





	Leaves

Face hot, heart pounding, and trying not to think about Rin Matsuoka getting out of the pool, Aiichiro bolted away from the pool as soon as he could and changed, then hurried across campus to his dorm. He shut the door behind him, leaning heavily against it for a moment before dropping down to the floor and putting his head in his hands. He still felt like he was going to burn alive at any second, and prayed that his roommate wouldn’t come along right away and catch him like this. 

 

He pulled his knees up as close to his chest as he could get, and let out a sigh. Ai hated how easily Rin could fluster him, and how obvious it could be sometimes. He knew the taller boy had seen his face, he  _ knew  _ Rin could read his reaction. It wasn’t as though Ai  _ tried _ to make his feelings for him obvious, but… 

 

Well, subtlety wasn’t his strong suit.

 

After a few moments, he finally unfolded himself and went to sit on his bed, knowing that Rin would pop in eventually, and he couldn’t exactly say he wanted to be mowed over when the taller boy showed up. He was grateful, for once in his life, that the school kept the AC running until mid-October. It helped cool his face down just a little, and Ai hoped that maybe he’d be able to chase the whole of his blush away before his roommate came back. 

  
  


After about twenty minutes of pining, he decided enough was enough, and he needed to go find some of his friends to distract him from Rin. He wasn’t ready to be confronted by the other boy right now, and he could only assume he’d be upset when he came back. It was best if Ai wasn’t there for the time being. He slipped his shoes back on at the door and poked his head out into the hall. Thankfully, he didn’t see anybody coming, and he headed out and down to the campus grounds, the fall breeze hitting his face as he walked. 

 

Leaves crunched under his shoes, and if he went out of his way to step on some crisper looking ones as he went, he wouldn’t ever admit to it. He went on about his way, happily stepping on dead leaves, until he found one that looked almost perfect. It was a bright shade of orange, and looked like it had just fallen. He could see the veins running up from the spine out to the edge of the leaf, and when Ai held it up, it cast just a little bit of orange light around it. It was beautiful. 

 

He stood there for a moment, turning his leaf over in his hands, and decided to try pressing it when he got back. Ai was just trying to put it in the pocket of his sweater as gently as he could when he heard an angry “LOOK OUT, YOU IDIOT!” 

 

The gray-haired boy looked up just in time to be knocked off his feet and slammed into the ground. Hard. Pain blossomed in the back of head, back, and hip, and he groaned as he tried to sit up. He was pinned under another student, and after a moment, he realized he recognized him from one of his classes. 

 

“Ai!” Came another voice, and the smaller boy could see someone running up to them out of the corner of his eye. “Are you alright?” It was Rin, and he looked gentler than Ai could ever remember him being. He helped the other student back to his feet, and made sure they were alright before reaching his hand out for Aiichiro and helping him back up. 

 

“Thanks.” He murmured, watching the other student skate off on his rollerblades. 

 

“You sure you’re alright?” Rin asked again, quickly looking him over. 

 

Ai guessed he would be bruised, and he could feel a lump beginning to form on the back of his head, but he thought that might be the worst of it. “I’m alright.” He promised, suddenly remembering his leaf. He reached into the pocket of his sweater and pulled out a ripped remnant of what it was. With a frown, he dropped it back to the ground, his shoulders sinking just a little.

 

“What?” 

 

“Nothing,” he insisted. “I just found a leaf, and I thought it was kinda neat. I wanted to press it. But the fall kinda ruined that plan.” 

 

Rin’s eyes found the thing on the ground and picked it up, turning it over in his fingers. It  _ was  _ a nice leaf, he guessed. It was a shame it had to be ruined like that. “Hey,” he said, trying to get the smaller boy’s attention. “I don’t have anything else going on this afternoon. Mind if I help you try to find another one?” 

 

Ai’s cheeks turned pink, and he started to insist that it wasn’t a huge deal, but Rin just shook his head. “It might be kinda fun.” He said, cutting Aiichiro off. “I’ll even race you to find a better leaf!” 

 

The taller boy took off before Ai could protest farther, and with a shake of his head, he set off in the opposite direction of Rin, eyes quickly scanning over all of the walked on, crunched, and broken leaves, hoping to find a good replacement for his. 

  
  


In the end, they both ended up finding one, both of which Ai took back to the dorm and pressed inside of one of the heaviest notebooks he had. He taped both of them to a page, wrote who found it beside them, and put the date at the bottom. They were kept there, in the book, on the highest shelf he could reach, and they remained there for the rest of the year. 


End file.
